Mountaintop Experience -- Walking On Water

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33

Our gospel lesson for today has Jesus' disciples in a boat. As far as Jesus' diciples were concerned, being in a boat was not all that special. It was simply something that they did most of the time, for they were fishermen. Anyone who had been born anywhere near the Sea of Galilee was all too familiar with boats and water and waves and fishing. So, to be in a boat was simply "life" to these disciples.

Now, to many of us, being in a boat would be a pretty special thing. Even though we are surrounded by some pretty big lakes, here in Michigan, there are few of us who aren't thrilled by a ride in a boat, whether it is large or small. So, it may be difficult for us to imagine the sense that the writer of Matthew wanted to convey to his readers when he said that Jesus' disciples were out in a boat. With these words, the writer of Matthew is simply "saying, "The disciples were doing something boring. They were involved in the normal, mundane activities of life. They were in a boat."

Our own lives are full of such things: from taking out the garbage to going to work, from changing the kitty litter to putting the clothes out on the clothesline, from eating your shredded wheat in the morning to figuring out the balance in your checking account -- these are certainly things that we have to do every day, things that must be done. But, who really looks forward to such things?

Now, compare this to what Jesus had been doing the night before that. He'd been up on a mountaintop, praying. And you can bet that when Jesus prayed it was anything but boring. Talking to God, for Jesus, was vital and lively and exciting. For when Jesus prayed things happened, doves came down from heaven, God would speak with a voice of thunder, Elijah and Moses would appear. Things happened when Jesus prayed.

And, often, there are those of us who have shared such moments with God. Any experience wherein we feel God is speaking to us, wherein we know that God is giving us security and love and guidance, is a time that we may call "a mountaintop experience." And, as we have shared those experiences in the past, we know that we have even dreaded coming down off the mountaintop, wishing that we could just stay there forever, basking in the glow of God's love.

But, even Jesus knew, as he prayed on the mountaintop the night before his disciples went for their boat ride, that there was work for him to do. He was keenly aware that people needed him, and that in fulfilling this need he would have to sacrifice and suffer. And, so, just as he had answered God's call to climb up onto the mountain to pray, he answered God's call to go down to the lakeshore to do his labors of love.

Now, as we read our gospel lesson for today, we're told that as the disciples were in their boat, doing the ordinary things of life, a storm suddenly came up. Now, as we consider this situation, we should ask ourselves what kind of storms we have encountered in our own lives that might have suddenly come up in the midst of the calm and ordinary. To the early Christian Church, storms actually symbolized persecution. And, indeed, there were many Christian Communities who suffered persecutions for the sake of the Gospel.

Or in our own lives, the storms that suddenly and unexpectedly come up in our lives may be sudden illness, or an automobile accident, or the tragic surprise of a death in the family. For those of us involved in the work of the Detroit Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, such a storm might have been hearing the news last week that Dr. Ted Doane, Director of the Conference Council on Ministries had suddenly died of a massive heart attack. Sudden storms do come up in our lives, whether they be caused by the loss of a job, or some other quick turn of events. And when they come up, don't we wish that we weren't in the midst of it all, that we could somehow escape the storm to the safety of God's security and love and guidance? Don't we wish that we could somehow escape the storms of life for the mountaintop experience?

But, that isn't the way life is. We weather the storm while it is raging. And, for the Christian, there is encouragement of Jesus to not only weather the storm, but to actually leave the boat and walk with him upon the raging seas, themselves.

Now, most of us would be afraid to be out on any lake in the middle of a storm for fear that the waves might swamp the boat. Caught in such a situation, we would be tempted to batten down the hatches and huncker down below decks until the worst of it blew over. But, when the storms of life come up in our life, Jesus comes to us walking on the waves and tells us to do just the opposite, to get out of the boat and walk upon the raging seas, to face the situation head-on, to have the kind of faith that masters fear and tells us that we can have victory even over those things that destroy.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Peter was afraid in the midst of the storm. But Jesus asked Peter to trust him and rebuked him for his lack of faith. And, hearing Jesus' voice, Peter faced his fear and walked upon the waves.

In life the wind is often contrary. There are times when we are up against it, and when life is a desperate struggle with ourselves, with our circumstances, with our temptations, with our sorrows, with our decisions. At such a time no man has to struggle alone, for Jesus comes to him across the storms of life, with hand stretched out to save, and with His calm clear voice bidding us to be of good courage, and not to be afraid.

It does not matter how we take this incident; it is in any event far more than the story of what Jesus once did in a storm in far-off Palestine; it is the sign and the symbol of what He always does for his people, when the wind is contrary, and when we are in danger of being overwhelmed by the storms of life.

Indeed this is the very cruxt of the gospel that in the very nick of time, in the time when humanity needed it the most, God sent his only begotten son, Jesus, to save us from the power of death and give us everlasting life. Amen.